The present invention relates to nutritional supplements to be administered to, or to be taken by, pregnant women. It is known that there are numerous deficiencies in the diets of pregnant women, particularly, but not exclusively, women of low and moderate incomes. More broadly, diets of people in general, and women in particular, in the United States are known to be poor, due in part to the prevalence of so-called “junk food”, fast food, which is high in caloric content, but low in nutritional value, and the desire of many working people to eat prepared food after a long day at the office. For women of child-bearing age, the situation becomes worse when they become pregnant as what the fetus needs may not be provided by a given woman's normal daily dietary intake.
Many supplements have been proposed and are currently being marketed in the United States to overcome the nutritional deficiencies caused by such eating habits. For example, Hermelin et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,258,846, 6,576,666 and 7,112,609 describe in the Background of the Invention sections of their respective inventions, various formulations and supplements, including prenatal formulations and supplements, that are (or were) on the market in the United States and contain various combinations of ingredients to supplement the nutrition, among others, of pregnant women. These include products known by the names Materna, Enfamil Natalins RX, Prenate Ultra, Niferex-PN, Niferex-PN Forte, Advanced Formula Zenate, Precare, and Natafort, all marketed by various companies that own the trademarked names of these products.
Riley U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,948,443 and 5,976,568 and Cooper et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,299,896, 6,361,800 and 6,953,588 describe multi-vitamin and mineral supplements also including amounts of lycopene and co-enzyme Q10. These supplements are marketed as general wellness supplements for a wide range of people, but are not specifically described or marketed as being useful for pregnant women.
Paradissis et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,494,678 and 6,228,388 describe multi-vitamin and mineral supplements for pregnant women that are specifically tailored for the first, second and third trimesters of pregnancy, but contain one or more ingredients that we feel are not needed or are in amounts felt to be unnecessary.
Many of the supplements described above, and elsewhere in the literature, including those supplements currently on the market in the United States, contain a broad range of ingredients, many of which are not necessary to be administrated to pregnant women. While they may not do any harm, in the sense that the body will eliminate in one way or another that which is not needed, there is a preference, and it is our desire, to set forth unique supplement formulations that have those, and only those, ingredients that serve necessary and beneficial purposes, particularly for pregnant women where the formulations of the present invention have differing amounts of ingredients for each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.